Facebook given deadline in ‘largest privacy class action in Europe’

Facebook has been given four weeks to respond to a class action, launched against it by an Austrian activist and supported by 60,000 users. The suit claims Facebook violated users' privacy, by cooperating with the NSA's PRISM program.

The class action initiated by Max Schrems, an Austrian lawyer,
data privacy activist and founder of Europe vs. Facebook group
has passed its first review in the Vienna Regional Court.

Facebook Ireland, which runs the social network’s activities
outside the US and Canada, has been given four weeks to respond
to the action.

"The order is very likely on the way to Facebook. The first
step in the legal procedure is hereby taken," said a
statement by Europe vs. Facebook on Thursday

The group has described the suit, joined by 25,000 users, as “the
largest privacy class action in Europe” and specified that 35,000
more users have registered on www.fbclaim.com, expressing their
will to join the action should it expand.

Facebook Ireland will have an opportunity to ask the court to
extend the time frame for its reply to eight weeks. If the
counter-statement from the social network never arrives, then the
court will be able to make a judgment in its absence.

Schrems filed the class action at the beginning of
August. He claims Facebook practices are in violation of the
European data protection law.

“For this lawsuit we have chosen basic or obvious violations
of the law: The privacy policy, participation in the PRISM
program, Facebook’s graph search, apps on Facebook, tracking on
other web pages (e.g. via the 'like buttons'), ‘big data’ systems
that spy on users or the non-compliance with access
requests,” Schrems earlier wrote on the Facebook Class
Action website.

The activist and the main plaintiff in the suit wants Facebook,
which has 1.32 billion active users and is worth around $195
billion, to pay out €500 to each supporter of the class action,
in case his allegations are supported in court. Compensation is
not the Schrems’ ultimate goal: that is to force Facebook to
change its policies to ensure users’ personal data is protected.

Facebook Ireland has not yet commented on the legal action.

It’s not Schrem’s first attempt to challenge US web giants for
alleged violations of private data.

His Europe vs. Facebook challenged the Irish Office of the Data
Protection Commissioner (ODPC) a year ago by demanding it to
probe into the activities of US companies, including Facebook, to
assess their involvement in the NSA spy scandal.

The watchdog rejected the appeal. The group then took its
legal battle to the Irish High Court, which referred the case to
the European Court of Justice in July.